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Few entrepreneurs can claim to have actually changed the way we live, but Ray Kroc is one of them. His revolutions in food service automation, franchising, shared national training and advertising have earned him a place beside the men who founded not merely businesses but entire new industries. But even more interesting than Ray Kroc the business legend is Ray Kroc the man. Not your typical self-made tycoon, Kroc was 52 when he met the McDonald brothers and opened his first franchise. Now meet Ray Kroc, the man behind the business legend, in his own words. Irrepressible enthusiast, perceptive people-watcher, and born storyteller, he will fascinate and inspire you. You'll never forget Ray Kroc.

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

Anybody with ideological objections to the McDonald's Corporation will hate "Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's" by Ray Kroc and his ghost writer, Robert Anderson. This is a shameless story of capitalist success. Kroc sums up his philosophy by saying that "Achievement must be made against the possibility of failure, against the risk of defeat. It is no achievement to walk a tightrope laid flat on the floor." Kroc's description of his first visit to the McDonald brother's restaurant in San Bernardino is almost like a religious experience. Indeed, later on in the book he says that when he's at work then McDonald's comes before God.Kroc saw the potential of somebody else's business idea, the McDonald bother's formula of providing cheap but high quality food prepared in a clean environment, and used all his energy and capital to exploit it. This simplicity is unsurprising coming from the man who claims to have come up with the KISS acronym: Keep It Simple Stupid. The success, however, was not without problems. In the early days even though the restaurants were in profit and the franchises apparently booming, the McDonald's corporation had a very serious cash flow problem. They couldn't pay the wages. But they acted fast and brought in an accountant who turned things around.A key feature of the McDonald's franchise's success is not easy to grasp. It's the formula whereby McDonald's acquired and leased the land on which the restaurants are built. It is this field which produced what is arguably Kroc's most expensive mistake and also highlighted a contradiction in his character. Because Kroc and his right hand man, Harry Sonneborn, failed to monitor a property developer who was supposed to be locating sites and building stores they had to borrow $400,000 in order to bail themselves out.Read more ›

The book is very old- it was finished in the early 80s and Ray Kroc is long since dead, but it is a great book.

It tells the story of how a middle aged salesman spotted a great product invented by two slightly unambitious characters and then set about world domination.

Due to the time in which it was written, it has a few comments which would now be seen as sexist (for example he employed a man as a secretary so he could also send him out as a salesperson), there is a lot to be learnt from this book.

However, like many books by successful businessmen one thing stands out as the key ingredient to make success- and that is hard work and dedication above all else, or as Ray liked to say; "Grinding it out".

It took a song by Mark Knopfler (Dire Straights) to get me interested in this book, but I am glad he wrote it, as having now read it. It tells of the rise of the McDonalds burger chain and how it became to be so successful, it is not for anyone who is expecting a blow by blow account of how to make money, but it is for those who are looking towards a long term aim, it you want to take out a McDonalds franchise then this could well be the book to inspire you to do so.

This should be the sort of book that all colleges in the UK should be using to inspire our next generation of workers if they are only doing business studies or just doing an apprenticeship this is one book I would say to any of them go get and read.

There are three reasons to read Grinding It Out by Ray Kroc, who developed the world's best fast food franchise, McDonald's.The first is to understand how great salesmen work. The second is to understand how to lead and develop a great business. The third, and the one which this review will dwell on, is to understand how a good franchise should work.While there is a difference between a franchise and a symbol group, there are a great many independent retailers in the UK considering some sort of tie up with a wholesaler or buying group to propel their business forward. Kroc's thoughts provide a useful benchmark to compare what is on offer."There is a basic conflict in trying to treat a man as a partner on the one hand while selling him something at a profit on the other," says Kroc.When setting up the McDonald's franchise system, he decided that it would not supply its operators. This was because he believed that once in the supply business, he would become more concerned on the sales he was making to his franchisee rather than with "how his sales are doing".A second key idea was that McDonalds would be a restaurant system that would be known for food of consistently high quality and uniform methods of preparation. "Our aim, of course was to insure repeat business based on the system's reputation rather than on the quality of a single store or operator."The basics of good service had to be "stressed over and over." Kroc was always reminding everyone of QSC and V: quality, service, cleanliness and value.In the 1970s when Kroc wrote the book, a prospective franchisee had to pass an interview and work evenings or weekends in a local McDonald's store. Only then would he be able to put down a $4,000 deposit to join the two year waiting list for a site.Read more ›